𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙋𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 • 𝙇𝙍𝙃

18. doused in her perfume

emma had been awake for almost eighteen hours—not by her own free will, of course. her feeble attempt to get any sleep last night had been faltered by a cold that was seeping its way through her body. after hours of restless tossing and turning, emma made the bold decision to call luke—surely he would still be awake.

the two talked well past sunrise, emma only hanging up once luke's small talk and laughter had turned into slow, steady breathing. 

now, hours later and with no sleep to get emma through the remainder of the day, she was sat on her sofa, aimlessly shuffling through the mail. a majority of the mail was set aside or discarded into the trash, but there was one envelope that caught emma's attention.

it was from her brother, whom she hadn't spoken to in almost two years. maya had also gotten the same piece of mail—which could only mean one thing. her brother was finally getting married. emma wasn't necessarily surprised by the news, ethan had been with his steady girlfriend since high school.

emma made the decision to move to a new city the day she turned eighteen, which resulted in her family being royally pissed off at her for the better half of three years. but, there was a reason maya and emma packed up and left their home town with no intentions of ever going back. there were too many memories there—memories emma wanted to forget. they were too painful to think about.

the night before emma's father had been diagnosed with cancer was the last time emma would be able to sleep through the night—that was six years ago. emma had only been able to sleep for the entirety of a night once. the first night of the road trip, when emma had fallen asleep on the couch.

she didn't know luke was the reason she slept so soundly. the closer he was to her, the better she slept. no nightmares, no waking up in the middle of the night screaming, just a warm feeling of content that she hoped to experience again one day.

once her father had passed away, only three short years after his diagnosis, emma was haunted by memories and nightmares every time she closed her eyes.

getting under four hours of sleep a night might sound, to most people, almost unbearable. but emma preferred it that way. if she wasn't sleeping, she wouldn't be forced to see her father's face. she wouldn't have to relive the worst moment of her life—the moment she watched the only man who had ever loved her take his last breath as she cried by his hospital bed.

pain changes people, it makes you do unthinkable things— anything to get you through the day.

emma's favorite places became places she could never look at again. walking past the small diner that emma and her father ate at every thursday night crushed her. seeing the empty dock that emma's father had taught her how to fish on broke her. but standing in her parent's empty room, knowing that his unmade side of the bed would never be slept on again, killed her inside.

she couldn't bare waking up in that broken home every morning—the sadness was so intense it made her want to die. she took her father's death the hardest, she had always been a daddy's girl at heart.

emma's mother and brother thought they needed to be together, that emma leaving would only be a temporary fix. but emma didn't care, she had to get out of there.

she left that day and never looked back, and she never intended to—until now.

emma wasn't heartless. she would never miss something as important as her only sibling getting married. the wedding was still a few months away, so emma had time to process everything and get ready to face the things she had kept locked away for three years.

it wasn't something she talked about often, only if she really trusted you. ashton and maya were two of the only people who knew emma's past, and they would support her unconditionally. she knew the only way she would get through the visit back home was by having her friends with her. ashton would be her plus one, luke would be maya's.